For the American film industry, the sad news has been continuous recently. Shortly after the death of George Romero, the "father of zombie films," a veteran Hollywood actor died: Martin Landau, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, died at the age of 89 at Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA on July 15. His agent issued an announcement on behalf of his family confirming the bad news.
Martin Landau
Born on June 20, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family, Martin Landau joined the Daily News newspaper after graduating from high school, where he was responsible for comic book creation. In 1955, the eight-year-old Actors studio was open again, and among the more than 2,000 applicants, Martin Landau, who had just quit his job at a newspaper, was obsessed with acting. In the end, of the 2,000 people, only he and Steve McQueen were lucky enough to be selected.
Founded by the famous director Elia Kazan and others, the "Actors Studio" became the "Whampoa Military Academy" of method acting under the leadership of a generation of grandmaster Lee Strasberg, which has trained generations of Hollywood stars such as James Dean, Monroe, Kevin Spacey and so on.
After several years of studying in the "Actors Studio", Landau officially entered the acting field, first appearing on the Broadway stage, and then playing a small supporting role in the war film "Pork Chop Hill" in 1959, thus entering the film world.
When he first entered Hollywood, Landau starred in supporting roles. In 1959, he played the villain Ma Zi in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest", and had many wonderful confrontations with the male number one Gary Grant, and was finally shot dead on the presidential statue hill. In 1963's Cleopatra, Landau played Caesar's right-hand man, Rufio, who once again impressed the audience. However, what really makes Landau famous is not the movie, but the TV series.
North by Northwest
In 1966, Landau starred with his wife Barbara Bain in the American drama "Mission: Impossible", both of which won Emmy Awards and finally became a household star in the United States. But a few seasons later, the two fell out with the crew because of salary problems, quit the TV circle in a huff, and have focused on the screen ever since. Unexpectedly, they all kicked on the iron plate, the stars both slipped down, and at one time even had to turn to the British television circle to make a living, and the relationship between husband and wife became worse and worse.
In 1988, at the age of 60, Landau finally ushered in the second spring of his career. He starred as male number two in Coppola's biopic Tucker: the man and his dream. The film was filmed in a heartbeat and also earned Landau an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but unfortunately lost to Kevin Kline in "A Fish Named Wanda", but the role still earned Landau popularity.
Sin and Wrong
In 1989, Randau again won the best supporting actor nomination for his role as the crisis ophthalmologist in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, only this time losing to Denzel Washington in "Glory".
In 1994, "Ghost Talent" director Tim Burton filmed the biopic "The Biography of Ed Wood", and invited Landau to star in the black-and-white era of "vampire" big star Bella Lugosi. At that time, Lugosi was also extremely popular, but after middle age, for various reasons, it gradually faded out of the public eye and was forgotten by the world, and could only remember the glory of the past in the amateur works of Ed Wood, who was known as the "worst director in history". Such a life ups and downs, Landau naturally has no lack of personal experience, so for him, this role is particularly handy. Finally, at that year's Oscars, he defeated strong opponents such as Samuel Jackson, who was nominated for "pulp fiction," and won the little gold man as he wished.
The Biography of Ed Wood
Martin Landau won the Little Golden Man with "The Biography of Ed Wood".
In the following two decades, the elderly Landau still worked tirelessly and starred in many film and television works, including "Searching for Secret Agents" and "Star Partners". In 2002, he also took on the narration for the documentary film Shanghai Jews as a descendant of Jews. In 2015, he also played "Remember" directed by Atom Egoyan, playing christopher plummer, who was a year younger than him.
In addition to his achievements, the most talked about in his acting career was the rejection of the role of Spock in the NBC series Star Trek, a role that later made Leonard Nimoy famous. In 2011, when PBS asked Landau about the documentary "Pioneers of Television," he replied, "I rejected Star Trek because I felt it would become torture to be on the show. I'm probably forced to die by that character, and even if I think about it now, I feel uncomfortable. This role is completely contrary to my original intention as an actor. Lenny is undoubtedly a better fit than I am. Frankly, a person who always speaks in a single tone does not feel excitement, nor does he feel guilt or fear, and is not affected by instinctive reactions. Who would want to play such a role? ”